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21 Dec 2014

When I visited Ben in China while he was there for work, I saw a handful of women wearing these super cute reindeer antler hats. I pretty much turned Shanghai upside down trying to find one for myself (unsuccessfully I might add), and Ben, being the kickass husband that he is, said he would try his hardest to bring one home for me. In fact, he almost missed his plane doing a last minute dash around the shops for one of these bloody hats. He came home empty handed, I was bummed about it but life went on. And then, a magical parcel arrived in the post on Thursday night. As it turned out, he and one of his Chinese work colleagues had been secret-squirreling the last few weeks to get me one. And its has barely been off my head all weekend!

How totally awesome is this 17 Sundays kimono jacket?! Funny story about this top, Suger had come over for a sleep over and packed a bunch of the new 17 stock for me to try on and sigh over. I fell instantly in love with the slouchy and relaxed cut of this jacket, I love that its not trying to be boho or hipster, its just an inherently cool item of clothing in its own right. Its such a new and rad cut, so different to any of the current patterned and printed lightweight kimonos around. And apparently I fawned over it so much that Sug and the 17 crew decided I could keep it! Gems that they are!

I wore this outfit out last night for end of year drinks with some of Ben's work buddies. I felt cool and chic the entire night, there is something about this rocking jacket that just gives off that rad vibe. Plus, with a killer hat like this and my cute 'Got Milk' bag, it pretty much makes for coolness without trying.

12 Dec 2014

Summer has hit us hard this year in Australia. It started early and with a vengeance! Because of the heat, I've been spending a lot of time in boring shorts or cropped leggings. I'm always looking for ways to throw a curve ball into my Summer wardrobe (I style up much better in the cooler months!) and from the first moment I put this Scarlett & Jo dress on, I knew I'd found it!

The dress is super lightweight without being too clingy. I love the feel of a thin cotton-like material in Summer, breathable and soft. The long kimono is attached to the shoulders by one loop in these photos and after that first wear, I separated them so the dress and jacket are two pieces. They are both so versatile, I know I will get heaps of wear out of them!

Sizing wise, I'm wearing a UK24 which fits pretty much perfectly. The dress is a body-con like fit but without too much cling. The kimono is a relaxed cut with plenty of room in the arms and the waist. Together they have such an awesome bohemian vibe.

I've actually worn the black dress quite a few times now, on its on just with basic accessories. I love the midi length, it's such an instant chic cut that transition between casual and dressed up easily. For this outfit, we were heading out to lunch with some of Ben's friends so I opted for a more relaxed beach vibe with the t-bar flats and flower crown. I love the way the crown compliments the kimonos colours, plus I never seem to have enough excuses to wear my flower facinators!

6 Dec 2014

My dream wedding was never all-white and classic. In my imaginings, it was fun, colourful and full of laughter! I always knew that the decorating was going to be a big deal for me. When you think of 'CARNIVAL', what's the first thing that comes to your mind?? To me, it was always big, lit-up marquee letters! THAT was where my wedding planning started!

Making these love letters was the most drawn-out and time-consuming part of the preparation (even more-so than the origami bouquets!). They were my bridezilla moment, the one thing I had to have, no matter what. If the dodgems were rained out, if the band cancelled, or if the cake sunk, at least my decorations were killer! So, making these bad boys was a real adventure, I've written up a quick tutorial on how to make them below, or keep reading for a blow-by-blow of some of my mishaps! Good luck!

So, the most important thing to note here is: at first I thought I'd be fine to just make them out of foamboard and cardboard. It was at the light-hole-cutting stage where we realized that the light strings were going to be too heavy for the foamboard, so we started over with MDF wood sheets. BUT, we used our pre-measured and cut-out letters as stencils and just traced them onto the wood. It all worked in the end! If I was to remake something similar for a party I'd use fairy lights and foamboard, but since I wanted these to be tougher, wood was the best material.

Quick Instructions:

- Measure out your letters evenly

- Cut out the letters and sand them back

- Equally space the light holes along the letter

- Cut holes big enough for the light bases to push through so at the end you can screw the light bulbs in from the front
- Cut strips of cardboard to glue along the edges (to create a shadow look with the lights)
- Glue the strips down, slightly overlapping the ends of each piece to prevent light leaks
- Paint your letters
- Push the light bases through, screw the bulbs on the front and then tape the light strings to the back of the letters

You will need:

(Note: you don't have to use the foamboard as stencils, if you feel confident enough, jump straight to the wooden board!)

The first and most important step is measuring up the letters to the size you want. Originally I used these foamboard A2 sheets and measured each letter to take up as much of the sheet as possible. So the basic measurements for each letter are:

- 77cm high

-50cm long

- 12cm wide

- 7cm long serifs (except on the 'V')

-the curve in the letters started 8cm up from the straight edge.

- Cardboard strips (which glue on later) are 9.5cm wide

- light bulb holes are 4cm in diameter

All the serifs on the letters ( the little flick on the side) are 7cm long, except on the 'v' as it was going to be too squishy between them on the top of the letter.

I measured and re-sketched the letters out several times before I was happy with them. So take your time and just keep going! This is the hardest step, it's all smooth sailing from here.

I cut out the foamboard stencils with a Stanley knife and the MDF wood with a jigsaw. As I'd already cut (and then changed my mind about the) foamboard, I used them as a stencil on the wood.

Cut out the letters and sand them back

Make sure you have a few hands around for the jigsaw cutting, you need someone to help manoeuvre and keep the letter still while someone else cuts. One sneeze in the wrong direction and you might end up with an 'I' instead of an 'L'!

After cutting, I sanded down the edges using Dad's electrical sander, obviously plain old sandpaper would work fine, but since I had Dad's whole tool shed to play with, I figured I'd give it a go!

Cut holes big enough for the light bases to push through so at the end you can screw the light bulbs in on the front.

The next step depends on what string lights you buy. We had two strings of 20 lights each so split it up to 10 lights per letter. I found it hard to get the right kind of lights so the globes were removable (otherwise the light holes have to be huge to push the globe through as well!), as most lights are now all one-piece LEDs. I found these ones on ebay (more expensive than I intended, but worth it)!

We re-measured the letters and then evenly (or as close as we could get) spaced apart the light bulb holes. This is where your round drill bit comes in handy, the 4cm round bit from Bunnings worked perfectly! We tried so many different cutting techniques to get these holes the right size. This annoyance was another one of the reasons we upgraded the base material from the foamboard to wood.

Cut strips of cardboard to glue along the edges (to create a shadow look with the lights)and glue the strips down, slightly overlapping the ends of each piece to prevent light leaks.

We cut the letter sides from cardboard as it bent easily around the curves and corners. The sides are 9.5cm wide, providing just enough space away from the lights to create a great shadow effect against the wood. We used hot glue to stick them to the wood and individually glued and overlapped every piece- make sure you do the inside of the letter first, figured that out the hard way! Ha! If you use the same kind of measurements as ours, you'll need about four sheets of A2 card.

Paint your letters and then after they are dry, push your light bulbs through and tape the strings to the back!

Several coats of a good paint were needed before I got a good colour coverage. The MDF wood soaks up paint so deeply! The colour we picked was something like cherry red as the light bulbs brighten the paint up so much. I originally tried a genuine carnival red colour but it became really washed out once it was against the lights.

And that's it! I loved the look they added to our carnival-themed wedding reception, they were a total hit!

30 Nov 2014

When Ben and I first started dating, I wore a lot of black. I look back on those photos and wonder where I was hiding all my colour. I do love the chic look of an all black outfit, but I always feel more confident when I dress it up with a bit of colour. Even better is a great classic LBD with a colour splash like this!

I love the way this dress hugs my curves. The cut of it is such a classic shape and it creates a fantastic nipped in waist look, even if there isn't much actual waist there to nip-in! I've always found that IGIGI dresses lend an instant feminine glam to whatever I'm wearing, there's something about this sillehoutte that makes me feel like a woman to be reckoned with!

These wedges are some of the comfiest shoes I own. I really wish I snapped them up in different colours, they are such an awesome statement shoe and I always get compliments on them when I wear them. I added my (super $6!) heart bag which is perfect for a long day out, I can almost fit the kitchen sink in this bad boy!

I figured that with a killer dress and red essential pieces, the logical next step was gold accessories. I'm a major fan of belts as jewellery, yes, it's not holding anything up but man does it look pretty sitting there on my waist! If I can add a belt without looking silly, I normally do. And of course, the finishing touch is a funky necklaces. And pineapples are about as awesome as it gets! Except for unicorns. But I was fresh out of unicorns that day.

"I waited all day. you waited all day.. but you left before sunset.. and I just wanted to tell you the moment was beautiful. Just wanted to dance to bad music drive bad cars.. watch bad TV.. should have stayed for the sunset... if not for me." - PJ